Torres completes 70 laps with new chassis

Jordi Torres completed no less than 70 laps of the Almeria circuit across Day 1 of this week’s Moto2™ test session on Tuesday. The Spaniard, winner of the German Grand Prix in July, focused on development of the latest Suter chassis.

This week’s action in Spain marks the final track activity of the year, with the testing ban then kicking into action for both December and January. On Tuesday, those present enjoyed a quartet of 80-minute practice periods, spilt up by intervals of 20 minutes, on a bright but chilly day in Andalucia.

As he rode his 70 laps, Torres experimented with the new Suter frame as well as a variety of swingarm and suspension configurations as the team continued to work on vibration issues.

"Even though the tests we had done before today had been useful, we still needed some more data with the new chassis that we will use next year, so we came here to Almeria," explains Torres, who clocked up a best lap time of 1’37.10.

"We worked all day with the new Suter frame and did some experiments with different swingarms and shocks, playing around with the stiffness of the bike and trying to get it to turn better and eliminate some of the vibrations we had this season.

"After 70 laps we had built up a lot of information and tomorrow we will compare it with the old chassis. We are doing a lot of important work so that we can give Suter as much information as possible for them to work with over the winter."

Pleased with the work he completed at the previous test, teammate Nico Terol (three times a Grand Prix winner this year) has elected to sit out the final test of 2013.